Letting down a superwoman

For Luke Wilson, starring opposite Uma Thurman in My Super Ex-Girlfriend was an exhausting experience. "I felt like we were doing a sports movie," the 34-year-old says about the over-the-top sex scene between him and Thurman, 36.

"There was so much action. You'd look down to the bottom of the bed and there were two huge guys, shaking it back and forth. As far as love scenes go, it certainly wasn't any kind of gentle, romantic scenario."

The Texan-born actor has a sense of humour about his gruelling scenes between the sheets. "We filmed so many bedroom scenes that I just started wearing a robe to work. I thought, 'Once I get there I've just got to strip so why get dressed?"'

This romantic farce directed by Ivan Reitman (Old School, Evolution, Ghostbusters) is about a regular guy who dumps his superhero girlfriend due to her neediness. Part fantasy and part Fatal Attraction (another jilted woman but this time endowed with super-powers), Wilson's bland everyman is an antidote opposite Thurman's high energy superheroine out for revenge.

Wilson has made a career out of playing traditional armpiece roles in movies such as: Home Fries, Legally Blonde, Charlie's Angels, Rushmore, Old School, Alex and Emma, and The Family Stone.

Incidentally, his two high profile off-screen relationships were with Drew Barrymore and Gwyneth Paltrow. Evidently, he knows a thing or two about ex-girlfriends. He nods. "I wish I could tell you a thrilling breakup story, but I don't have any. I've always been lucky enough that any ex-girlfriend just hated me at the end. They haven't wanted to kill me."

The youngest brother of actor/directors Owen and Andrew Wilson, he explains his place in the Hollywood dynasty. "Andrew is the charmer who always got the girls. Owen is the provocateur, and I'm the peacemaker.

"Actually, my oldest brother, Andrew, has gone through a few really bad breakups. He had this girl who lit some newspaper on fire and just threw it on the sunroof of his car and torched the car. The great thing was he borrowed Owen's car that day."

Says Reitman of Wilson's appeal, "He's the kind of guy we all want as our friend, both men and women, because he's this all-American guy from the middle of the country who's comfortable in his own skin."

With Owen's movie, You, Me, and Dupree also hitting the big screen, there seems to be a lot of face time devoted to the Wilson brothers these days. "We need to be careful. We don't want to be too exposed and become the next Brad and Angelina," laughs Wilson. With two movies competing for the box office, is there any sibling rivalry? "Not really, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for Owen. He's the one who got me into the movie business."

Though Wilson is frustrated with what Hollywood brings to him artistically, he is realistic. "Of course I'd like to do more movies like The Royal Tenenbaums [in which he played son Richie] and people always ask me about that, but I just don't get offered those types of movies. If you're a big star you can pick and choose what you want to do. Obviously, I'm not in that position. I do the roles the powers-that-be hire me to do."

Like his brother, Owen, he has taken pen to paper in the pursuit of a good role for himself. "I've just written a script for myself and Martin Lawrence that my brother Andrew and I would direct. I'm also going to do a thriller soon with Sarah Jessica Parker so that will be a change for me," he says. "It's like a musician. He might play solo or with a band, or acoustic or electric, it's good for your mind to change your style and play different kinds of characters. I hope there's more of that in my future."